Notes / Commercial Description:
We’re excited to announce the release Scratch #76 – Special HOPS today! Special HOPS is an Imperial Red Ale brewed especially for the HydroWorx Underwater Marathon event to be held on Sunday, September 9 to benefit The Eagle Fund. Just like the highly-trained military units used for unconventional, often high-risk missions, Special HOPS is bold, aggressive and sure to sabotage your senses and bombard your palate with hop bitterness.

User Ratings & Reviews

A - Served with a semi-clear amber body and a pillowy, white head...the head was two fingers tall and slowly fell to a full cap...there was chunky lacing left behind

S - Fresh grapefruit and other bitter fruit rind came through at first...quickly taken over by a strong and solid caramel backbone

T - Strong fruit flavors come out with first sip...the hops add the fruitiness along with a nice bite...grapefruit still reigns supreme with a little lemon and orange rind coming in behind...there is still a strong malt presence...a few toasted notes come out, but the sweet caramel plays a bigger role...it comes out more as the beer warms

M - Medium bodied...bitter, syrupy, lingering sweetness

O - I wanted to like this one as it was for a good cause, but I found myself comparing to Nugget Nectar...I mean how couldn't you? In the end, I found it to taste like "old" Nugget Nectar and I didn't want more than one

The beer pours a reddish amber color with good head retention and lacing. The nose is attractive, as I pick up considerable orange citrus, along with tropical fruit and a hint of underlying pine and spice. This beer smells pretty nice. The flavor profile is every bit as good; while there is a consdierable sweet malt backbone to this beer, there's more than enough hoppy bitterness as well to counter it. The alcohol is well integrated into the flavor profile, and the finish is long, bitter and still quite smooth. There's a hint of alcohol at the very end, which is the only thing that mars the quality of this beer (in a very small way).

Really liked this one. There was a lovely juicy hop flavor that was very attractive.

Appearance – Served a red colored beer with a one finger tan head. The head has only a light level of retention, but when it fades it leaves a nice level of lacing.

Smell – The aroma is heaviest of a sweet and hop fruit aroma. The sweet fruits are largely orange and tropical in nature with the hoppy being largely of a grapefruit like smell. With these fruit aromas are other aromas of a pine and earthy hop as well as a very light caramel smell as well.

Taste – The taste begins with a bready base with large amount of sweet caramel and citrus as well as a moderate showing of citrus hop. The grapefruit citrus hop present in the beginning grows stronger in intensity as the taste moves on. It is joined by some hop flavors that were detected in the nose. A pine taste comes to the tongue followed by a more earthy taste at the end, which when combined with the other hp and sweeter flavors leaves a persisting hop, yet rather balanced taste on the tongue.

Mouthfeel –The body of the beer is on the smoother side with a carbonation level that is about average. It suits the flavors rather well and makes it rather easy drinking.

Overall – If you can find this one be sure to give it a go. It drinks very easy and has wonderful flavor transitions. Delicious and quite tasty.

A- a clear ruby with a finger off tan head, head sticks around a little bit and leaves very nice lacing.

S- Earthy and piney hops dominate. Pine needles, hemp, and bit of mint. There is some grapefruit, but it's certainly not dominant. A bit of deep roasty/caramel malt is there as well.

T- Hops dominate largely here as well, and follow the nose. Very earthy. There is a base of roasty/dark caramel sweetness, but it really gets overpowered by the hop bill, and backend bitterness that really stick around. As I let it warm the malts came out a bit more, and this really started to shine and get pretty darn good.

M- A very nice combination of creaminess with a light to medium carbonation, and dryness on the backend from the hops.

O- Very nice, but again, could use more of the Red Ale characteristics to shine through.

12oz bottle into a matching Troegs pint glass. the brew appears a perfectly clear color of mahogany with more than a finger of yellowish stained tan froth across the top. As the cap fades, it leaves a full wall of webby lace sticking to the glassware. A light swirl effortlessly revives about a finger back to the surface.

The aroma is fruity with a bit of dirty melon aspect coupled with almost a vegetative hop quality. There is a toasty sweet caramel grain inclusion that helps transition to a mixture of herbal components and mild alcohol esters. The more I smell this brew, the more it comes across with quite a bit of caramelized grain mixed with almost a minty hop aspect.

The taste is fruity with hops that are almost floral at times as they blend with the toasty caramel grain quality. More sips bring out a bit of bready grain that is at times faintly musty. The hops present a flavor that is mildly vegetative and almost reminiscent of cantaloupe. The aftertaste is quite bitter with a bit of pine like resins coupled with more herbal and musty flavors.

This is a medium bodied brew with a modest amount of carbonation. I dont know if it is the hops or the yeast, but something about this just doesn't quite sit right with me as it warmed up. It isn't bad by any stretch, just has a strange flavor mid palate that lasts long into the aftertaste.

Pours a deep clear ruby in the glass, topped with a finger of thick off-white head. This maintains a smooth ½ finger, which drenches the sides of the glass with robust sticky lacing. The aroma smells floral, piney, spicy and green with bitter grapefruit. This is undercut by a sweet caramel twang that has a bit of a light toastiness to it.

The taste is juicy grapefruit bitterness that spreads resins; spice and a light herbal feel out into the profile. The hops are nicely balanced by smooth notes of sweet toffee and toasted grains. This is dry, resinous, spicy and bitter on the finish. The mouthfeel is medium to fuller bodied, with some sharpnes on the tongue and the rest of the feel being more of a smooth creaminess that flows relatively easy in the mouth. Alcohol warmth is present here and really draws some of the more aggressive aspects of those hops out.

This was actually a pretty well crafted Imperial Red in the flavor departments (more of a ripe tropical and herbal feel emerged as this warmed and helped add a little more smoothness) but the alcohol, which honestly felt more than 7-8% at times held this back in spots for me. I’m still glad that I grabbed a bottle though. It was worth checking out.

A - Pours slightly hazy amber orange with a big, foamy two finger tall white head leaving sticky streaks of lace down parts of the glass.

S - Smells of pungent citric hops, fresh fruit - mostly grapefruit and some mango - caramel malt and some pine resin. It is really well balanced from start to finish.

T - Starts off with a strong citric hop bite slowly giving way to hints of fresh cut grapefruit, warm caramel and some sticky pine resin. FInish is still pretty bitter with a touch of sweetness, lingering on the palate long after the finish. Pretty similar to NN but a little more tame.

M - Medium body with moderate carbonation. Smooth, juicy feel from start to finish. The hops are stronger than they first appear to be.

O - I really enjoyed this one. There are definitely a few similarities between this and Nugget Nectar but I wouldn't say its a clone or anything. There is no doubt in my mind that Troegs is the undisputed king of the Amber Ale style. Get this while you can!

Thanks to stmgl01 for the awesome extra! 12oz bottle poured into Founders snifter. No bottle date.

A- Pours a fairly dark but slightly translucent reddish brown slightly amber color with a very thin off-white yellowish brown head that recedes quickly to almost nothing. Decent carbonation.

S- Citrus fruits- melons, papaya, a bit of grapefruit, some floral notes with a decent light caramel malt background. Average to slightly above average aroma strength, decent fruit smell but a bit too malty in the background. Would have liked the fruits to be pronounced a little bit more, but overall not bad.

T- Citrusy, lightly bready malts mixed with a light fruity hop presence of melons, light grapefruit, etc.. Overall not bad but bit too much malts that didn't balance the best in my opinion with the citrus hops.

M- Slightly juicy, a bit bubbly from the carbonation, abv a little bit present on the finish.

O- This was a decent beer, but nothing fantastic. Definitely not as good as Nugget Nectar, which is good but still a little bit over-rated in my opinion. This was a decent drinking beer, but probably not something that I would drink again anytime soon. Enjoyed trying it though.